For those who had difficulty viewing Mortal Kombat Online's Exclusive Video Interview with Ed Boon (which can still be downloaded here [Right-Click/Save As]), the official transcript has now been made available! From the interview:

Scott Howell Alright, Question #2 is from Alfonso Navarro from San Paulo, California. "In the past, it was said there would be 24 characters in total for MK: Deception, the amount we've seen in most of the line-up or heard of their confirmation. Boon, are you planning more, meaning will there be more than 24 characters?"
Ed Boon Yes, there will be more than 24 characters. Your main grid of characters will be 8x3 which will be 24 characters, but we do like hiding additional characters in the Konquest mode that will be in addition to the 24 characters.

To read the rest of the transcript, click here. Thanks to forum member GuiltyByDesign for helping to complete this transcript!

GameTrailers.com, an affiliate of Happy Puppy, has come through with some new videos of Mortal Kombat: Deception. All of the videos appear to be the same ones we first witnessed and recorded by our video camera during the presentation that Ed Boon made at the Midway Games MK: Deception Launch party on May 11th. Now you can watch as we did in wicked detail as fatalities are performed by returning favorites, including Sub-Zero and Baraka. Hopefully these fatalities will put the same sick feeling in your stomach, just as they did to us at the party! Links to all of the videos are below:

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Fatality Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Gameplay Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Konquest Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Puzzle Kombat Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Chess Kombat Video

Thanks to Mortal Kombat Online forum poster austintrees for bringing these to our attention!

It looks as if the Mortal Kombat: Deception Development Team has started another round of post-E3 interviews. HomeLan has scored the latest, which although touches on almost everything that is already learned like gameplay features and online modes, Steve Baren makes the first public announcement of characters Kira and Dairu. From the interview:

HomeLAN - While you are bringing back old favorites from past Mortal Kombat games, there will be some new characters. What can you tell us about MK Deception’s new fighters?

Steve Beran, Character Designer - We have a lot of new characters in MK Deception. Kira is a leather clad beauty and the newest member of Kano’s infamous Black Dragon gang. Hotaru is a guardian of Order. His current mission is to restore order to Outworld. Dairu is a deadly mercenary. Ashrah is a demon hunter bent on purifying herself of evil.

To find out what other developers had to say about the game, you can read the entire article in full by clicking here. Thanks goes out to MK Online forum user prince_goro78 for the news lead.

GameSpot has posted a new 18-minute long video with a simultaneous direct feed, interview, and walkthrough of Mortal Kombat Deception with lead programmer and Mortal Kombat co-creator, Ed Boon. There's a nice detailed explanation of the Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat modes, as well as an explanation of what's new with the overall fighting engine. Of most interest:

• The Pit makes its 3-D debut, as one of the classic backgrounds found in Chess Kombat.
• The PS2 version has PS2 supports using the headset online.

The video is free to stream as a GameSpot Basic member, and you must be a member of GameSpot Complete to download the high quality version. So click here and begin downloading the movie now.

Wildseed, a maker of interactive accessories for cell phones, has announced that their first GameSkin accessory for the upcoming Identity cell phone by Curitel will be an accessory which features Midway's best-selling fighting game, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance! From the press release:

The GameSkin featuring Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance marks the first time a Mortal Kombat game will be played on a wireless phone. This game accessory will add Game Boy Advance style controls to optimize the phone for competitive Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance play. This first GameSkin will debut later this year, and it will be available for use with Identity, a new phone manufactured by Curitel that will be launched this summer.

Wildseed research indicates that teens and young adult consumers want a robust gaming experience on their phones. Young people indicated that they want a way to take the console gaming experience with them on the go without having to carry multiple devices. The research and Nintendo’s market demographics also demonstrate that young consumers do not want to carry around a "game console" or put one up to their ear for voice calls, rather, they want "a cool looking wireless phone that also entertains."

"We are honored to launch our gaming strategy with Midway Games’ legendary Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance," said G. Eric Engstrom, Wildseed CEO. "We are dedicated to dramatically improving gaming on a wireless phone with specialized GameSkins designed to optimize the game play of each title delivering an arcade experience in the palm of your hand."

This marks the first confirmed sighting of an MK game on a cell phone. As we learn more about this product, we will report it here.

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum user pretender for the News Lead Submission that led us to this news story!

UPDATE: We have received an image which should give you an idea of what to expect when the MK:DA GameSkin is released later this year. To see a full-sized image, click on the thumbnail.

We'll be getting more information concerning this product soon; keep checking back with us as we release more information!